Thursday, December 28, 2006

Days of Future Passed

I had a great opportunity today to go through some 50 year old photographs from my childhood. The reason I did this was because I received a call from the past in the form of my brother's and my best childhood friends, Bobby and Billy Salazar.

They were traveling between Pagosa Springs and Phoenix and decided we should have lunch. We have occasionally stayed in touch with them over the years and it is always great to see them.

We went to Dos Amigos for lunch and talked about our growing up in Albuquerque's mid heights in the 1950's. Actually, we mostly talked about all of our near death adventures. Thinking back, it is a wonder any of us ever survived. Some of the stuff we did was really stupid but we always escaped with our limbs still attached.

We met Bobby and Billy in 1952 on the day the moved into their house about a block and a half from ours on Quincy street. Their dad was a juvenile probation officer who died suddenly in 1958 from a severe stroke. Bob and Bill moved to Phoenix with their mom about three years later. Bob worked for the Bureau of Reclamation and started his own swimming pool construction company. Bill had a long career as a banker in Phoenix. They are both still working in their retirement years.

It is great to still have contact with such old friends. They were there during our formative years and thinking back I can say we had a great childhood where we reveled in simple things that were available to us to keep us occupied. Long bike rides, building underground forts, riding the escalators at the Fedway Department store downtown, hanging dummies from streetlamps, playing football in the street, and watching Victory at Sea on Sunday nights on Television. We somehow stayed busy and our parents raised kids that pretty much stayed out of trouble. What more can you ask for?

Here are a couple of pictures of before and after! The first was taken in March of 1957 and shows Bob, me, and Roger Burnett standing in our front yard with my Man in the Moon Kite.

This other picture was taken today at lunch. Left to Right it is Bob, Jim, Tom and Billy. Sheeesh! Time Marches on!

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About Me

Jim Baca has a strong record of visionary service to New Mexico. He retired as the State of New Mexico's Natural Resource Trustee 1n 2010. He has served as Mayor of the City of Albuquerque, as well as two prior terms as New Mexico’s elected State Land Commissioner. He served as the Director of the National Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior in the first Clinton Administration. Jim Baca also serves on the Boards of numerous non profit organizations including The Wilderness Society and the Wyss Foundation and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
Baca has run a successful public affairs consulting practice when not serving in public office. He spends his retirement playing golf, attending board meetings, and generally doing what ever he wants to do.